Development and Cooperation


	Contributions from the Column Monitor UN Summit: saving what could be saved UN summit press review Commodity exporters enjoy high demand UNCTAD: Happy times for commodity exporters Taxing air travel to fund development Japan to increase aid Roads and development Alternative health report for WHO reform Women have higher crop yields World Bank: inequality blocks development 10/2005		UN summit press review Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Whether out of malice or mere negligence, many have contributed to reducing the UN secretary-general’s ambitious reform agenda to tatters, producing a document that will at best have only a patchy impact on the organisation in future. One day, perhaps, those who were obstructive will regret the fact that no “big deal” was stuck between North and South on security, progress and human rights. Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich It is not a terminal setback for the UN but it will take many years to resurrect the key reform proposals. And the world's poor – whom the UN anniversary should have helped most – do not have that time. The Manila Times It is only 35 pages long but the 2005 World Summit Outcome speaks volumes about the political and diplomatic push and pull that the United Nations is heir to. Sixty years on, power-plays among its members still prevent the world body from achieving the goals it had so boldly inscribed in its charter. The Times of India, Bombay Secretary-General Kofi Annan had proposed an agenda that seemed appropriate for a new century and for the UN in the 60th year of its existence, but that is now all but buried under a cacophony of self-assertion by member states. In short, it was business as usual, with entrenched interests of nations holding firm against the common interest. Financial Times, London It is the vocation of NGOs to be critical. But look closely at the summit communiqué and the cup is as half-full as it is half-empty. One weary diplomat was heard to remark that the outcome this week was not as good as it might have been, but better than it could have been. That will always be the UN’s epitaph. Daily Nation, Nairobi The gathering was billed as the largest-ever collection of world leaders. It looked more like the largest gathering of do-nothing. There were interesting speeches though. Some nations, including the United States, had gnawed bare UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s reform proposals. A headline posted on UNWire screamed: UN World Summit adopts landmark outcome document on draft on crucial issues. Landmarks are relative. New York Times The document offers little more than a fudge of feel-good phrases and pious wishes for future action that leave everyone off the hook from taking entirely practical actions that are needed right now. Every one of the more than 170 national leaders attending, starting with president Bush, should be embarrassed about letting this rare opportunity slip away.